Hello to the world a year later! I am now embarked on the journey to the depth of corporate America, as I recently learned to be the phrase associated with Wall Street, even though I am not literally on it; I am above it, that is. There is a great deal to be cherished in work, though I might tread the safe path here of describing other aspects of my life outside the ivory tower of quantitative finance. I am a loner in a busy city, something of an ideal to me, so long as I have the energy to stand up on my feet. Indeed I am always either on my feet these days, or on my ass, unlike my days in grad school, where half of the time I am on my back. I call this the great evolution of the homo-erectus. One of the things I discovered about living in Flushing is that things aren’t as cheap as I anticipated. 2.50 for three navel oranges, which was translated to pomegranate orange somehow in Chinese. I am yet to taste the pomegranate part of the ordinarily looking oranges. It almost reminded me of the recent “gold rush” linked to QE3 and inflation and so on. Too bad even an orange suffers the great tide of currency surplus.
Here are some thoughts on the benefit of the disadvantageous:
1. going home late from work means I get to take some empty seats on the train, and not coincidentally the train ran faster, at least for today.
2. Having little privacy in work (a temporary lift of the taboo) means I get to sharpen my sense of responsiveness, while still maintaining a productive stream of thought, unlike doing math, where I am allowed the excessive freedom of thoughts, without regard to the overall presentation, which is ultimately what I am judged on
3. Living alone and commuting alone means I have more time to devote to scholarly business, such as picking up French through wattpad in conjunction with android dictionary. I swell in a month’s time I will finish half of Le Comte de Monte Cristo
4. Paying city tax along with higher state tax in New york compared to the popular alternative of New Jersey affords me gustatory freedom, along with the sight of the madding Chinese crowd, and the convenience of the subway network. The fluidity of residential population also increases the liquidity of the market. Thus craigslist becomes a true Lassez-Faire, though I must say chairs and lightbulbs are outrageously expensive.